Presently there is a need throughout the world for a simple, practical and versatile container for medicaments of various kinds in order to substitute the old containers which have been used for many years for packaging medicaments presented in solid form, such as pills, lozenges, tablets, capsules, troches, pearls and the like, which, in order to be taken out of their container, represents many cumbersome manipulations for the persons who need the same. Moreover, said medicaments may be susceptible to contamination since in most cases, they are handled directly by hand. As is well known, when a person has to take pills, lozenges, tablets, capsules, troches, pearls and the like, he must perform the following:
First. It is necessary to open the container wherein the medicament is contained, this container usually having a threaded cap attached to a hermetically closed seal that is necessary to fracture or break.
Second. In order to break the hermetically closed seal, the person has to make an extraordinary effort for unthreading the cap and destroying said seal, and frequently the seal is not separated uniformly and is broken partially. Consequently, it is necessary to use a cutting instrument or exert a major effort to accomplish total separation of the cap. It is important to notice that these caps are usually manufactured of metallic material, generally aluminum, and thus have sharp edges which, in many cases produce cuts, and in other cases the thread is lost and the cap is separated from the container and it is no longer possible to screw the cap on again to close the container tightly.
Third. Once the separation of the cap is effected, it is necessary to remove the small cotton swab or polyurethane foam pad, which is used in these containers in order to prevent the pills, lozenges, tablets, capsules, troches, pearls and the like from moving freely within the container which usually causes one article to impact against another or against the wall of the container and in many cases, are broken.
Fourth. Thereafter, the person faces a situation in which he has to take out the small cotton swab with one hand and the container with the other one, and the container must be turned upside down on the palm of the hand in order to handle the pills, lozenges, tablets, capsules, troches, pearls and the like. Frequently, the pills fall out in a quantity in excess of one or two and it is necessary to return the extra pills back to the container.
Fifth. Once the person has been able to get a single pill in this hand, he picks up the same with the fingers of the other hand and places it directly to his mouth and the pill is swallowed with a sip of water.
Sixth. Afterwards the person picks up the small swab in order to return the same to the container and proceeds to screw the cap on to its place.
During all the above mentioned steps the container has remained open and the pills are subject to atmospheric contamination and the absorption of atmospheric humidity, which in the long run may lead to degradation of the medicament.
In the past, a great number of attempts have been made to provide a simple, practical and versatile container which overcomes all the above mentioned inconveniences. When plastic materials appeared, glass containers were substituted by plastic containers achieving by these means a reduction in the weight of the containers and also avoiding the problem of the breakage of glass containers. However, the novelty, if it is possible to call same as such, was exclusively in a change in material, keeping the design of the plastic containers identical to the old glass containers.
Recently, many attempts have been made in order to find new designs of containers and avoid some of the inconveniences previously mentioned.
In highly industrialized countries, especially in the United States of America, new containers have been developed which have caps or closure devices that are more trouble-free to operate and which perform more efficiently. Particular attention has been given to the containers called "child-proof containers" which are intended to prevent children from opening containers filled with dangerous medicaments. However, in most cases, instead of furnishing a more simple opening and closure of the containers, the desired result has been reached by complicating the performance of the caps for said containers.
In the pharmaceutical and drug market there is another type of package for small solid articles and this consists of the packages known as "Blisters" which comprise two sheets, generally one being of a thermoplastic material and the other of a metallic material, usually aluminum foil. The small articles are trapped between the two sheets and within an ampoule made in the plastic material sheet and in order to take out such articles, it is necessary to break the metallic material and thus it is possible to take the small article directly by the fingers of the hand so as to place same in the mouth.
This type of container has as a main disadvantage the fact that much material must necessarily be used in comparison with the small number of articles which may be packaged; consequently, the cost is very high. Furthermore, special equipment is required for packaging and such equipment is also costly. Finally, the packaging materials, in view of their special characteristics and specifications, since in some cases they constitute a true sandwich of different sheets or foils, are different and costly to elaborate. Besides the above, these containers still retain some of the disadvantages as above mentioned in connection with the old type of containers.
Another type of container which has been widely used in the market consists of a sandwich of two sheets of cellophane or aluminum between which the pills are located at uniform distances. Some of these types of packages have weakened lines which allow cutting a square of material containing the pill. All the above seem to be simple. However, the problem arises when a person desires to remove a pill from the square or small pocket containing same. Since in this square the material is uniform and there are not weakened lines, it is necessary to use a cutting instrument and in most cases, a person uses his nearest cutting instrument available, i.e. his teeth. As it may be easily understood the result is highly anti-hygienic.
In the United States patent art, various devices are known which comprise depressible elements in order to align openings in outer and inner containers for dispensing articles such as pills. Devices of this type are known for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,772,772, 2,960,259, 3,612,348 and 3,762,539. With respect to the present invention, the pertinent art of which Applicant is aware is U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,539 to Kerr which discloses a pill dispenser constructed of two plastic tubes equipped with a spring-biased twist and lock mechanism. However, the present invention represents an improvement over devices such as that of Kerr as the device of the present invention is more practical since there is no need of twisting action as it would be necessary with Kerr's dispenser which, in order to be operated, needs two hands and two depressing steps. This is in contrast to the device of this invention, which is operated by a single depressing step with two fingers of one hand. Further, the inventive container can be assembled more easily than Kerr's because there is no protrusion which should be fitted precisely in a pathway. Moreover, since the opening in Kerr's dispenser is in its upper section, the dispenser must be tilted almost all the way around in order to let the tablets exit. It is also more difficult to deposit the tablet directly in the mouth. In the claimed container, the pills are always ready to exit and may fall directly in the mouth. In addition, in Kerr's dispenser, the safety integral detachable sections of the proposed dispenser are not shown or taught and Kerr's dispenser does not show child-proof means.
Contrary to all the above, the present invention avoids once and for all the inconveniences of the known containers which are presently available in the market.